The Last Starfighter

1984
Director: Nick Castle
Cast: Lance Guest, Catherine Mary Stewart and Robert Preston
Plot: A videogaming boy, seemingly doomed to stay at his trailer park home all his life, finds himself recruited as a gunner for an alien defense force.

Computer-Generated 80's Shenanigans! IN SPACE! and a Trailer Park
by C. True

Alex is a little over 18 and really wants to get out of the trailer park he lives in to do bigger things with his life. Personally I could imagine worse places to live, and certainly worse people. In Alex's trailer park community cats sleep in mailboxes, your hot girlfriend (who has spent a Weekend at Burnie's!) lives next door, everyone knows everyone else's name and when you're about to break the high score on an arcade game at the convenient market, literally the whole trailer park comes out to cheer you on. Its a tummy-warming movie-world that lets you know right from the beginning that nothing bad will happen, just shenanigans. And who shows up to spice up Alex's dull life!? THE MUSIC MAN! In fact this was Robert Preston's last movie appearance in which he plays Centauri, a cooky-oldman/alien come to take Alex to be a starfighter in the war against the evil intergalactic totalitarian Xur. One of my few gripes with this movie is that as far as alien evil-doers go, the evil Xur was not convincing. First he looks silly with a Papa Smurf vibe that just doesn't really inflict fear, worry or even mild anxiety. Second, Xur doesn't really have an intimidating sound to it. They can't all be called something as ominous as Darth Vader, but Xur sounds more like a suffix than a name. But anyway, Alex is a little whiny and scared at first about being a starfighter, goes back to earth (a totally unnecessary portion of the movie! who wouldn't want to be a starfighter?!) only to flip-flop and decide to go back. By that time all the other starfighters are dead leaving Alex to take on Xur and his armada single-handedly. There's a fair amount of Star Wars rip off in this portion of the movie, but its still entertaining. The special effects look pretty good especially considering...this was the first movie to have all computer-generated special effects! So you should see it for historical purposes if nothing else. Actually I think the combination of CGI effects and costumes/makeup for alien characters was a good combo. There's something wholesome and fun about cheesy looking martians like Alex's alien BFF, Grig. The Last Starfighter is exactly the kind of movie I'd watch 1) with a small child or 2) when I'm home sick and need light fluff to pass the day.